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Reports

Reports provides short summaries of the latest findings of academic institutes, think-tanks, charities, pressure groups and government and international bodies from 2011 to 2014. The reports included can, in the main, be accessed free of charge. For a review of the academic literature, for which journal subscriptions are required, the Social Policy digest is a good source.

Spiralling living costs and stagnating wages are creating a 'double squeeze' on the lowest-paid groups in society, according to the interim report of a Commission that is examining the changing nature of low pay and poverty in the UK. It warns that the economic recovery could fail one in five people in paid employment.

The Living Wage Commission is an independent inquiry, bringing together leading figures from business, trade unions and civil society organisations, and chaired by the Archbishop of York.

Economic growth at city level does not always result in a reduction in poverty levels, particularly in the short term, according to a Joseph Rowntree Foundation study that looks at the evidence on the connections between cities, economic growth and poverty in the United Kingdom.

Over 36,400 households have been caught by the coalition government's benefits cap since April 2013, 96 per cent of them households with children, according to new official statistics.

The benefit cap limits the amount of benefits a household can receive to £500 a week for couples (with or without children) and lone-parent households, and to £350 a week for a single adult with no children.

Some social policies in advanced economies remain geared toward older segments of society, leaving the younger population at greater risk of poverty, according to the conclusions of a new study from the Luxembourg Income Study.

The paper looks at 18 OECD countries around the year 2004, analysing the effects of social policies on the incidence of poverty among low-skilled young women and men aged 18-30, and among those at risk of possessing obsolete skills (low-educated men aged 55-64).

Families in England with vulnerable children who face homelessness are being forced to move far away because the coalition government's benefits cap means they can no longer pay the rent, according to a report from the Action for Children charity.

For working-age households where no one is in work, benefits have since September 2013 been limited to a total of £500 a week (£350 a week in the case of single people).

Child poverty in Scotland fell by 10 percentage points in the 10 years to 2011-12 – about twice the fall in England – according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Further reductions in child poverty, it says, hinge on tackling poverty among workless families, where poverty levels remain very high.

Average annual inflation has been 1 percentage point per year higher for the poorest fifth of households than for the richest fifth since 2008, according to a new analysis from researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The research findings appear in a pre-released chapter from the IFS 'Green Budget' 2014 publication.

The level of many social security benefits in the UK is 'manifestly inadequate', according to a report published by the Council of Europe.

The report was authored by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), made up of independent experts. The mission of the ECSR is to judge whether states are conforming with the provisions of the European Social Charter.

Jobcentres need to make improvements in the way they assess claimants' potential barriers to employment at an early stage of the claim process, says a new report published by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee.

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PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. ESRC Grant RES-060-25-0052.